In this study we analyse the dynamics of the main sources of income of the population during the period 1989 – 2010, the decrease of these incomes as a consequence of decreasing the medium income by 25% and the pensions by 15% starting with June 2010, but also the way how these revenues cover the minimal basket of goods and services for a decent life and subsistence.
Beside the action of some objective causes, of economic or demographic nature, the structural deficiencies of the state budget, of the health system and of the pension system, are also the product of the action of some social and political mechanisms from the perspective of a selected model of social justice. The people are less willing to pay taxes and dues as long as they do not accept as satisfactory the way they benefit from these taxes. Considering the social justice’s perspective the issue is that some may react like this, others, in my opinion – a minority, may not and the last ones become the absolute looser of this social inequity generator system. My hypotheses is that this system is validated and protected by constructing a meta-ideological social definition of social solidarity, that states that certain social categories, not necessarily the most disadvantaged ones, having elective power, have less obligations and more rights comparing to others that for same social needs have more obligations and less rights. To be precise – in the public speech the pensioners are discriminated positively in general, not only those with low pension, comparing to the employees in general, not only those with high salaries (see the recent decision of the Constitutional Court), the inhabitants of rural environment, in general, not only those with serious social problems, the people living in block of flats comparing to those living in houses etc. Hence, I consider that the moral crisis is the main cause of all the other crises – economic, social and politic. This moral crisis will be analyzed on two dimensions: social justice and how a certain model of social justice is, on the one side assumed, and on the other side accepted; the social solidarity that in its new shape may become the initiator of a mechanism promoting an alternative model of social justice that also produces effects by increasing social inequity and injustice.
Economic research is currently focusing on the role of social capital in the development process and particularly on the role of social capital and social networks in migration flows in a social development perspective. The main questions our research is trying to address are as follows: which are the major constraints in migration processes affecting the integration process of migrants? Do social capital or social networks play a role? Which is the integration model developed at European level? In order to address these questions we are focusing on a specific case study: the Romanian migration process in Italy and particularly in the area of Rome.
This article comments the European main development directions in the coming decay, as they are presented by European Commission in The European 2020 Strategy, and the attached Romanian Objectives. Both The European 2020 Strategy and the Romanian Objectives emerge on the base of global, respectively, national economic context of the last financial crisis. The author`s analysis starts from the ideas of these documents and uses also other sources for documenting the economic and social impact of the crisis.
The current strategy of the European Union is strongly related to a new solution that is based on the force given by the so called “European social economy” platform. The social economy is initiated by a humanist philosophical principle that aims equal opportunities for all the social categories. The European institutions, their initiatives and the approach itself alleged by European projects depend on this reformative model of thought that has been adopted through the Lisbon Treaty in December of 2009. The study has as main goal to analyze this principle, by taking into account its connections with the social inclusion aspects and its approach as a major ethical and social integration on the market labor for those who have been isolated in the current context of the crisis. Moreover, the main objectives, the institutional characteristics and also the theoretical and philosophical backgrounds of the social economy will be highlighted.
Help the poor make the effort to get out of poverty. But how?
Sometimes, in promoting a solution, a policy or strategy, its innovative character is used to legitimize its implementation based on the fact that the effort needed to verify such an assertion is relatively high not only epistemologically speaking, but ontologically, as well. On the other hand, as the conditions that stimulate innovation are yet to be clearly established, although there are efforts made in this direction, innovation cannot be assumed to appear automatically, if some efforts are made to support it. This issue is even more acute when it comes to social innovation. Consequently, in researching social innovation it is important to be able to decide which innovations should be disseminated based on a relevant set of criteria. Moreover, as most areas of the social sciences have overlapping elements, and thus, as one cannot simply assume that what is not an economical, political or other type of innovation is necessarily a social innovation, it becomes useful to integrate the links between these areas into the analysis. In the first section I propose a working definition and contrast it with existing ones. The second section will use the working definition to give an example of how we might classify innovations. After constructing the framework, in section three, I shall give, in the fourth section, one example of how it might be used, based on an analysis of two community projects. The concluding remarks will summarize the ideas of the project and suggest further development of the framework.
The paper is an attempt to identify the issues meant to facilitate and intensify the intercultural dialogue, appreciated by the author as being the most fruitful way to build both a world and an intercultural cohabitation. The final result of such ample, sinuous and difficult process is, in the author’s conscience, a social and cultural space that he calls a common space of active cohabitation. The author’s hypothesis is that what we call the “socio-cultural identity” of the Romanian nation (as a part of the European and universal diversity) can only be the result of the life and activity of all the participants to the act of living together; the author endeavours (wants) to convince the others that the Rroma people also had a valuable contribution to this act. The lack of documents and other reliable sources determines the author to go to the collective memory or other sources, from which he deduces ideas and induces assertions that make this paper a debatable, even disputable one, in fact, a serious invitation to deeper researches, studies, investigations and common reflections, without prejudice. Their outcome would be the objective way towards truth and profound knowledge, without false amiabilities.
We live in a modern fast‐changing world and every sector of life has modified in order to better adapt to this situation. Social interaction is no exception. With the birth of the internet, hundreds of millions of people have begun to form online communities and to interact by means of this new media. One of the most popular form of online means of interaction is blogging. This paper seeks to shed some light upon this word that seems to be on everybody’s lips nowadays, “blog”, upon the characteristics of the ones who use it and the motives they have for doing so, the benefits they can obtain from this activity. Like many new phenomena, blogging is a controversial subject. While some believe it to be “the fifth estate”, others don’t think of it as being much more than a public journal, a place of pointless chit‐chat. Wherever the truth may lie, one can not ignore the rapid growth of the international bloggosphere and the massive numbers of people involved in it. That is why this paper is a plea for social scientists not to overlook or take lightly (as they have done so far) a growing phenomenon that has become a part of so many lives and which, by sheer accessibility, might ultimately write an important chapter in social interaction as we know it.
Through this work we aimed to analyze whether and to what extent, Romania, as a state signatory to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms has fulfilled the two natural requirements arising from is capacity of contracting state, namely:
a) if it implemented in its national legislation the European rules on human rights and;
b) if it ensures their effective observance within the judicial work of the State.
Concerning the first requirement, we can notice that Romania has aligned its legislation on human rights both by their inclusion in its Constitution and by enactment of general or special laws in this area. However, the European Court of Human Rights hasn’t effectively condemned Romania for lack of legislation, but especially for infringement of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the enforcement process. With respect to the second issue, as from the analysis on several cases decided by the European Court of Human Rights, with reference to the constitutional review carried out by the Constitutional Court of Romania, it results that in the judicial practice we can still find violations of rules on human rights and fundamental freedoms.